Britain’s terrorist force smashes up Dublin’s James Connolly Labour College during the Irish Revolution. After the Treaty ending Ireland’s the War of Independence, Britain would send the Black and Tans to Palestine.

‘Black and Tans Destroy Monument Erected to the Memory of the Late James Connolly’ from Butte Daily Bulletin. Vol. 3 No. 113. December 29, 1920.

ESTABLISH COLLEGE AS MEMORIAL TO CONNOLLY. January 16, 1920.

Dublin. Ireland is to have a labor college. Since Nov. 2, when the founding of the James Connolly labor college was decided upon at a conference of trade union, cooperative and socialistic party delegates held in Dublin, a management committee has been at work raising funds, developing courses, and making propaganda for the college among the working class organizations of Ireland.

The purpose of the enterprise is “to commemorate James Connolly by carrying on his work of educating the Irish working class to win and hold social freedom, and by the promotion of lectures and study classes to fit working men and women for the service of their class.”

The constitution places the governing power of the college in the hands of the annual conference of delegates from all bona fide working class organizations in Ireland, which are affiliated to the college. One-half of the management committee will be elected by the conference and the other by the students of the college.

The college has already begun its definitely educational work in Dublin, and has sought to awaken interest in the country by offering to trades councils and trade union branches its aid in setting up educational classes in their districts, supplying tutors, lecture outlines and special lectures.

LABOR COLLEGE IS DESTROYED IN ERIN. December 29, 1920.

(Special to The Bulletin.) Dublin. The “black and tans” in their work of destruction entered the James Connolly Labor College and destroyed or stole all the valuable equipment of the college, which had been purchased out of a fund raised by the working class of Ireland and Britain.

The spoils of the enemies of enlightenment include stock of literature on the subjects of economics and history; furniture, chest, card index cabinets; records of five sessions’ work; students’ names and addresses, mailing list of trade unions and affiliated bodies; complete stock of duplicated lessons for correspondence courses, card records of correspondence students; all letters, including the mail received on the morning of the raid; headed letter paper and subscription cards; lecturers’ manuscripts; a small library, including the gifts of Mrs. George Bernard Shaw.

The losses are estimated at close upon a thousand dollars. It will be impossible for the Irish workers to replace. Many who have rendered loyal and noble service to the college have been driven from their jobs and are now in danger of losing their lives at the hands of the “black and tans.” The faculty of the college are appealing to their kin in America to come to their assistance. They feel that the memory of James Connolly will be treasured more by the work of the college, which was erected as a monument to him, than by any other organization.

The college requires literature and finance. Any books dealing with literature, economics, science, etc. may be forwarded by registered post to the James Connolly Labor College, 42 North Great George’s street, Dublin. Checks and money orders sent must be crossed “I.A.W.S. Bank” and addressed to D.J. O’Leary or Walter Carpenter, honorary secretaries.

The Butte Daily Bulletin began in 1917 in reaction to the labor wars in Montana, the Speculator Mine fire killing 168 miners; IWW organizing, and the murder of IWW organizer Frank Little in Butte. Future Communist leader and IWW organizer William F. Dunne and R. Bruce Smith, president of the Butte Typographical Union published the paper as an outgrowth of a strike bulletin with the masthead reading, “We Preach the Class Struggle in the Interests of the Workers as a Class.” It became daily in August 1918 and in September 1818 officers raided their offices and arrested Dunne and Smith on sedition charges. An extremely combative revolutionary paper, while unaligned, it supported the struggles of the Left Wing in the SP, reflecting the large radical Irish working class of Butte also supported Ireland’s and the Bolshevik revolution, as well as the continued campaigns of the IWW locally and national as well as the issues in Butte. It ran until May 31, 1921.

PDF of full issue: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1920-12-29/ed-1/seq-4/